Turbofan engines are engineered to maintain high performance operation when subject to adverse environmental conditions, such as icing conditions and conditions under which relatively large amounts of Foreign Object Debris (FOD) are ingested into the engine. Certain turbofan engines are equipped with anti-icing devices to heat forward regions of the engine and, specifically, regions of the fan module prone to icing. Such anti-icing devices are generally effective at deterring the formation of ice within the fan module, but add undesired cost, weight, and complexity to the fan module. Additionally, anti-icing devices do little to prevent FOD, such as particulate matter (e.g., sand), low temperature moisture (e.g., ice crystals, hail, or super-cooled water droplets), and larger debris (e.g., bird fragments generated by bird strike) from entering the core flow path of the turbofan engine. While it may generally be possible to reduce the quantity of FOD directed into the core flow path of a turbofan engine by modifying certain design parameters of the engine's fan module, such design modifications often negatively impact other interrelated physical or operational aspects of the turbofan engine, such as aerodynamic performance, length, weight, and/or engine complexity.
There thus exists an ongoing demand for the provision of core-protecting fan modules, which reduce the quantity of contaminants entering the core flow path of a turbofan engine during operation. It would be desirable for such core-protecting fan modules to have an overall weight, size, complexity, and aerodynamic performance levels comparable to conventional fan modules lacking enhanced core protection properties. Ideally, embodiments of such core-protecting fan modules would further deter the formation and accretion of ice within the fan module when exposed to icing conditions, preferably without requiring the incorporation of anti-icing devices into the fan module. Other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent Detailed Description and the appended Claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings and the foregoing Background.